At Rogers High School in Newport, Mrs. Cykert, my cooperating teacher has two sections of College Prep Chemistry, and then I will also be working with another teacher who teaches both College Prep Chemistry and regular Chemistry. The first full unit that I will be student teaching to all the different classes is endo and exo thermic reactions. The students will have just completed learning about balancing chemical equations and determining products, and so they should have the background knowledge necessary to look at reactions written as equations and learn about whether a reaction will be endothermic or exothermic. They will have some limited understanding of energy levels from their study of bonding where they discuss filling valence electron shells, and so I will need to guide them from there to heat as energy and the basic laws of thermodynamics. The topic that is covered after endo/exothermic reactions is thermodynamics and gas law, so hopefully I can structure my unit so that it is a natural progression of topics.
I still need to speak with Mrs. Cykert (as well as meet my other cooperating teacher) and determine if they have enough temperature probes and other supplies available to do the inquiry activity with calorimetry. I know from my own experience in high school as well as my experience teaching the CHM 102 lab here at URI that actually measuring the heat change of reactions with thermos or coffee cup calorimeters makes a lasting impression and seems to really solidify the difference between endothermic and exothermic for students.
I still need to speak with Mrs. Cykert (as well as meet my other cooperating teacher) and determine if they have enough temperature probes and other supplies available to do the inquiry activity with calorimetry. I know from my own experience in high school as well as my experience teaching the CHM 102 lab here at URI that actually measuring the heat change of reactions with thermos or coffee cup calorimeters makes a lasting impression and seems to really solidify the difference between endothermic and exothermic for students.